There is much talk today about autonomous vehicles.
There is less or no talk about the possibility that when automobiles become
autonomous, human beings no longer will be. A sad irony, indeed.
Let me explain. It is not a
coincidence that in large inner cities-- where most people take the subway,
buses, taxis, and other public transportation to get where they are going--
they tend to vote 80% to 90+%
for so-called progressives, leftists, Democrats. Whereas in more rural areas,
western states, i.e. “fly over country,” people vote for conservatives for the
most part.
This is because the latter are used
to being independent and doing things for themselves. They map out their own
lives, and don’t need the government to tell them what to do-- and when and how
to do it. In fact, they grow the food and extract the energy that all of us,
especially those in the big cities, need to survive.
They prefer to be responsible for
their own lives, drive themselves around, and make their own schedules. They
also tend to like land, whether a suburban yard, or a ranch or farm. By
contrast, most in the densely populated urban areas live stacked up in
relatively small apartments, flats, and condos, with neighbors on all sides of
them, just a few feet away through the walls, floors, and ceilings. They
therefore heavily rely on public transportation. When they walk to the local
deli or boutique, policemen are often visible—and signs tell them when to
“Stop,” “Walk,” or “Yield.”
Where am I headed with this? The
more we allow others to control us, the more autonomy we cede. That is obvious.
When we surrender our autonomy to gadgets and machines, we eventually forget
how to do the things they now do for us. Many kids can no longer tell time when
looking at an old analog “clock.” (In fact, some schools in England—and
elsewhere—have removed these clocks from their walls for that very reason.)
Unless a digital clock shows them it is, for example, “10:15,” they are lost.
And who among us hasn’t handed cash to a clerk at a checkout lane and watched
them briefly struggle to figure out the change we are due back…until they look
at the digital display on the register? We are in real trouble if they can’t,
of their own competence and volition, quickly determine that if the bill comes
to, say, $19.72-- and we hand them a $20 bill-- we are owed 28 cents in change.
Much as we outsource many of our
jobs, we are outsourcing many of our brain functions. And, while there are
numerous and obvious benefits to technological innovations, if we allow them
to, in effect, “dumb us down,” will it ultimately be to our benefit? Especially
when we consider the potential ramifications of the rapid onset of “artificial
intelligence.”
I fear that the God-given,
“organic” intelligence we possess may one day be eclipsed and usurped by an
artificial one. No one knows where that will lead. And we will have simply let
that happen.
Americans have long had a love
affair with the automobile. (“Get your kicks on Route 66.”) In
large part because of the sheer, unlimited freedom cars provided us. There was
great joy in “taking the wheel,” and charting your own path. In mastering the
machine…and the road.
With the coming “Great
Reset” and “Fourth Industrial Revolution” we are in danger of writing ourselves
out of our own story. Will we let our machines master us?
When our vehicles are autonomous,
will we need them more than they need us? By relinquishing our control, will we
have swapped our independence for theirs? Will we have ceded our autonomy—and
freedom—to the big corporations and governments that manufacture, monitor, and
control them?
Perhaps that is the reason
“progressives” and the “Great Reset” favoring elites seem so hell-bent on
making our vehicles autonomous…and us less so.
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